Construction of beds for railway sleeping-coaches.



No. 864,095. PATENTED AUG. 20, 1907. C. HERENDEEN.

CONSTRUCTION OF BEDS FOR RAILWAY SLEEPING COACHES.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.19, 1907.

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PATENTED AUG. 20, 1907. G. HBRBNDBEN. CONSTRUCTION 0]? BEDS FOR RAILWAY SLEEPING COACHES.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 19, 1907.

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CHARLES HERENDEEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CONSTRUCTION OF BEDS FOR RAILWAY SLEEPING-COACHES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 20, 1907.

Application filed January 19, 1907. Serial No. 353,038.

To alllwhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES HERENDEEN, a citizen of the United States, residing in Chicago, Cook county, Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Construction of Railway Sleeping- Coaches, Relating Particularly to Their Beds, of which the following is a full and correct specification, reference being had to the hereto accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof, and in which Figure 1 shows a part of one side of the interior of such a coach, partly in section. Fig. 2 shows the same in plan view, having the top part omitted so as to show my device more clearly.

Like reference letters denote like parts throughout.

The object of my invention is to so improve the construction of the sleeping-berth of sleeping-cars as to cut off enough of the heat from under the sleeper of the lower berth, more particularlythere being in all known constructions of said cars two berths, one over the other, to a section.

As iswell known, from experience, the lower berths in such cars are so near the heating-mechanism which, necessarily, to keep the entire car-room of suitable temperature, must have sufiiciently high temperature or heat radiating 'power to attain said end that, unavoidedly, heretofore, the said required amount of heat has rendered said sleeping-berths too warm to be endured without great distress as well as injury to healthto most users of such berths. Therefore, to overcome said excess of heat and reduce it to a point which will produce a feeling of healthful comfort instead of distress, I interpose anywhere between the heat-source and the top of the bed, a sheet of asbestos material, preferably one as close-textured as possible so as to leave no openings through which heat-rays may sift, and extensive enough so that its edges may lap well onto the three walls or sides of the bed so that no heat may rise up between them. As is well known, said material (asbestos) is in the highest degree a non-conductor of heat which, when thus transformed into a thick sheet or blanket and made of close texture, so that no heat-rays may strain through its meshes, it will transform said beds into places of real comfort where, as proved by actual and careful experiment, a reduction of from at least ten to eighteen or more degrees, Fahrenheit, temperature is obtained over the material now in use for said beds.

In Fig. 1 of the drawing the arms of the oppositely facing seats on one side of a car are shown broken away to just slightly below the edge of the sheet of asbestos a which is shown with its front edge horizontal in front while the three remaining sides thereof are shown turned up or lapping onto the three walls or sides of the bed, and on said sheet of asbestos is shown a mattress or quilt of less area turned up at its said same three edges. Parts of the abutting seat-pieces 0 here shown as part of the bed-bottom, are shown in section, exposing the springs and their covering to show how said parts form a hood or heat receptacle which holds and, literally,

forces the heat up through such a bed, as it cannot pass down and out and must, therefore, be held down by some heat non-conducting material, as a sheet of asbestos or equivalent substance.

In Fig. 2 the bed is seen in plan or top view, the upturned edges a of the sheet of asbestos being now shown on the four sides. The steam-pipe d from which the heat is derived, and how it is usually applied under the seats and beds being shown in broken outlines. Only a central post or seat-support is shown in Fig. l, and above said parts are shown the windows f and fragments of three upper berths 9.

As herein set forth, and, preferably, the sheet of asbestos covers the entire bed, but from what has preceded it is self-evident that said heat-arresting material may be applied in smaller parts, and to particular places of the bed, as, for example, if the sheet is divided as along the broken lines i Fig. 2, so that a piece of such heat-obstructing material may be removed, or omitted from the foot end to give or obtain increased warmth for the feet.

The word close-textured is, herein, meant in the sense of compactness of the heat-nonconducting material to its greatest efficiency, as it is well understood that such material, or materials, as asbestos, mica, and the like, are not in any sense loom products, but that in their structure, relating to their power to inter cept heat-rays they are compact, or close-textured.

What I claim is:

l. The combination with a heating-mechanism, superimposed by a bed, of a sheet of flexible non-conducting mineral material interposed in any plane between the top of the bed and the top of said heating-mechanism.

CHARLES HERENDEEN.

Witnesses:

F. H. WreKr/r'r, P. R. EARLING. 

